About heredity...

A trait is a characteristic that can be used to describe a

person or thing.

Some traits are inherited. Those are genetic traits.

Other traits are not inherited, but a product of the

environment. They are acquired traits. (language,
ability of an animal to be tamed, having a ‘six-pack).
How do we inherit traits from our parents?

Randomly.

Why do siblings not look exactly the same even if born from
the same parents?

Because there are so many traits that can be

inherited randomly, that the chances of inheriting
exactly the same traits are almost nonexistent.
A quick recap of what we have learned so far...

1. The hereditary material is DNA

DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid.

1. DNA organizes itself by creating
coiled structures called
chromosomes.
Sperm and egg combine their
chromosomes to make 46 (23
from mom, 23 from dad).

Humans have 46 chromosomes in most

of our cells
What is a gene?

A gene is a piece of DNA located in a

chromosome.
A gene is a section of a chromosome that
codes for a trait.

Example: the PTC gene is a section of

DNA located in chromosome #7
Some people have this gene, some
others don’t
Now let’s learn a little more about this with the Gizmo...

www.explorelearning.com
In the Gizmo, they talked to you about dominant traits...We will learn a little about how that works

First: Like we said before,

humans have 46 chromosomes

Those 46 chromosomes can

be organized in 23 pairs

Each member of the

pair comes from one of
the parents.
Remember, genes are sections of DNA that code for a trait.

Chromosomes in a pair have the

same genes… example:
chromosome 1 from dad has a gene
for eye color. Chromosome 1 from
mom also has a gene for eye color.

However the gene from mom and the gene from dad can be
different versions of the same gene…

Dad’s copy may code for blue eyes

Mom’s copy may code for brown eyes
We call the different versions of a gene ALLELES
We use letters to represent alleles

…...And you get to chose the letter…

● Example: to represent the gene for fur color in rabbits. This
gene has two alleles. Brown and white.
I chose a letter…. “The letter B/b”

● To represent the gene for PTC tasting…

I chose a letter… “The letter P/p”
 Now...
Imagine this… a cat gets two copies of a gene for fur
length. One copy from mom, and one copy from dad.

This gene has two possible alleles… short or long

The copy from mom says “SHORT”, but the copy from
dad says “LONG”

You may think that the cat is going to have

medium-length fur…. But that is NOT what
happens.
What really happens then?
One of the alleles will be “stronger” than the other… the stronger allele is called

DOMINANT…
And we represent it with a Capital letter S

The other allele is “weaker”... it is called

RECESSIVE allele.
And we represent it with a lowercase letter s
EDPUZZLE TIME
 Remember...
Mom cat gave the kitten the copy that says “SHORT” (We will use a capital S)
Dad cat gave the kitten the copy that says “LONG” (We will use a lowercase s)

In this case the dominant allele is the “SHORT” allele… and that is why we
used a capital S to represent it.
Mom cat ------> S s ←------dad cat
Kitten= Ss
The kitten got at least one copy of the dominant allele, thus that is the trait that
will be shown …. The kitten will have SHORT FUR.
In sheep, white fur color (W) is dominant to black fur color (w)
Daddy sheep----> W W <--Mommy sheep

Baby sheep= WW

The baby will be white

Daddy sheep----> H h<--Mommy sheep

Baby sheep= Hh

The baby will be white

Daddy sheep----> h h <--Mommy sheep
Baby sheep= hh

The baby will be black